UoIWe finally finished creating our homes. The students worked hard, thinking about which materials were the best choice for their homes and how to make what they wanted. Time management is an important life skill. The students had to finish their home within a set time. Each of the students presented their home to the class with confidence, which was followed by a lot of questions. We really enjoyed looking at one another’s homes. The homes are displayed just outside the classroom to celebrate their hard work.

MathematicsWe continued working on addition this week. “Why do we need addition?” “When do we need addition?” To apply and to deepen the students’ understanding, we shopped at our Reception Shop. The students picked two food items and took them to a casher after working out how much they need to pay. They also learned how useful a number line, counters and a 100 chart to work out a total. We practiced counting numbers without skipping using a 100 chart. Please help your child to count to numbers bigger than 10 correctly.LiteracyGood readers predict what might happen in the story as they read. We together practiced this skill using big books. The students are pretty good at making predictions. Please ask your child what he or she thinks might happen in a story when you are reading a book together. We also looked at words with ‘sh’, ‘ch’ and ‘ing.’ We found a lot of them in our books. “I found ‘ing’!” “What is the word?” “I don't know…” “You now know how to read ‘ing’ – hide ‘ing’ and try sounding out the rest.” “s… ing…sing!”

Week of February 2

UoIWe visited Aubrey's home this week. We observed carefully to find out how many chairs we could find. We are learning that when we count, we have to be careful; we don't want to skip any numbers. We know that data collection must be accurate! Ms. Mindy thank you very much for hosting us, we had a fantastic time! We were also very pleased to have met Aubrey's grand parents!We have started to build a model home! First we designed our home on paper. We had some great, creative ideas and we made careful choices from the range of materials available. We were asked many questions while we built our home. Ms. Kyoka wanted to test our learning. Ms. Kyoka was pleased to see that what we learned during the unit has been reflected in our homes and in our conversations. We will finish our project next week. We bet that you can’t wait to see our creations!

MathematicsADDITION: Our main focus this week was addition. We learned that addition is joining two (or more) groups to see how many there are altogether. We worked on the concept using manipulatives (objects which we can use to count with). “I see 4 mangos on this tree and 3 more mangos on the other tree - how many mangos do we have altogether?” “How can we work it out?”We worked in pairs to develop our understanding of the concept. We each threw a die and we had to count to work out how many spots we had altogether. We had a lot of fun. Perhaps you could play this game with us at home. We also worked on a strategy called “make 10.” We discovered which pairs of numbers when added together make ten. We discovered 9 and 1 make ten, 8 and 2 make ten (and so on). FRACTIONS: We made paper cakes. We made some whole cakes, some half cakes and some quarter cakes. We would love to talk about wholes, halves and quarters with you at home.

PATTERNS: We also had lots of fun taking our understanding of patterns and expressing this as sound and movement patterns. Ms. Kyoka and Ms. Kim Anh both thought that we presented our patterns to the class with great confidence. We were very creative!

LiteracyRETELLING: This week, we focused on retelling skills. We learned that good readers can retell a story, focusing on important events, in order that events happen. We sequenced and retold some stories.RE-READING & SOUNDING OUT: We also learned that good readers don't make up words; they try to read and sound out what is written. We know that we can re-read a word by running our finger under the word, asking "Does this sound right?" "Does this make sense?"

SENTENCES: We also practiced writing sentences. We looked at pictures. Ms. Kyoka and Ms. Kim Anh asked us “Tell me one thing this picture tells you.” We had to write our answer. Our teachers also asked us: “How did you feel yesterday and why?” We chose a feeling from a range of ‘feeling cards.’ We answered the question and wrote it down. Ms. Kyoka and Ms. Kim Anh are pleased at how well our sentences have improved and they are happy we are working more independently. We have a writing checklist to self assess and regulate our own learning. This really helps us to be better writers.

UoIThis week we developed our understanding of homes. In particular that:

there are many different kinds of homes and home lifestyles;

homes and home lifestyles around the world are often different to our own;

all homes have a place to relax, cook, sleep and wash.

We discussed how we feel at home. We learned that a person’s home usually makes them feel relaxed, comfortable and happy. We talked about people having more than one place which they feel is their home. This is especially true for those of us who have moved from country to country.Thank you to Yu Na and Mr. and Mrs. Kang for hosting us in their home this week. We enjoyed some wonderful, Korean snacks and we had fun discovering what Yu Na’s family likes to do at home. We found some Korean books in Yu Na’s home and we discovered Yu Na and her family love reading in their home language. What lovely places homes are: there’s no place like home!LiteracyWe are becoming better readers every day! This week we practiced identifying the main characters in picture books. Focusing on the main characters helps us to follow the important events in a story. These events usually happen around main characters. We practiced retelling a story in our own words. A good reader can retell a story, focusing on the important events. Please support your child to develop this skill by encouraging him or her to retell a story you and your child have read together. Encourage your child to use their home language to retell the story. This will help your child to make connections between the languages. We learned to recognize and pronounce the English ‘ch’ sound. As you read with your child at home you may wish to occasionally ask him or her about the ‘ch’ they find in words. Please do not do this too often though, as it is very important that reading at home is enjoyable.

MathematicsThis week, we learned that a pattern always repeats. We learned to make our own patterns and to make sure that our patterns keep following the rule all the way. We practiced extending other people’s patterns. We needed to think carefully about what it is that is repeating. We also learned about fractions. We learned to recognize a half, a quarter and a whole. We compared these fractions using strips of colour paper called fraction strips. We can show you a whole, a half and a quarter. Please ask your child to use the fraction strips found in the envelope in his or her book bag and to show you a quarter, half and a whole.We enjoyed lots of activities and games to build and deepen our learning from the past two weeks. We learned that Ms. Kyoka and Ms. Kim Anh are not the only people who can teach us; we also learn from our friends when we work together!

Week of January 19

MathsThis week we learned about simple fractions, Venn Diagrams, time and patterns.We looked at the whole-half relationship. We enjoyed learning about fractions in a real life, home situation – the kitchen. “Give me half!” “I can’t eat it all!” “Can we share?” We learned that fractions are everywhere in our everyday life. We went out to see if we could find any patterns. We had to search for things that are repeated over and over again. We found a lot of patterns! We observed and recorded many patterns carefully. We learned that patterns are all around us. We continued to learn about time through our calendar reading. “How do we know what day it is?” “What is our schedule for this week?” “Are there any special days in this month?” We also learned to sort using a Venn Diagram.LiteracyWe are learning to be better readers. We learned that pictures tell us stories and that making connection to books helps us to understand stories. We learned that we should not worry if we are not sure about some words; we can always sound out the word and try to guess!We are also learning to be better writers. We learned that we think and we can write down our thoughts. We learned that full stops, capital letters and spaces help to make our writing easier to read and understand. We learned to use a writing check-list to self-assess our own writing.We are learning to be better speakers and listeners. We had a very successful first week of Show & Tell. We explained what we had brought to share with confidence. As listeners we asked many questions: “Why do you like it?” “You have a prince – where is the princess?” We were great inquirers!

Unit of InquiryWe investigated ‘How do homes reflect family life?’ We learned that if we look in a home we see different lifestyles, routines and rules. We learned that homes are comfortable special places to be – there is no place like home! As we investigated homes, we often worked in a group or a pair. We learned that working together is sometimes not easy but we are trying hard. We visited Elena’s home on Tuesday. We really enjoyed English pork pies and Ms. Kim Anh and Ms. Kyoka enjoyed an English “cuppa” (tea) with milk! Thank you to Elena and Ms. Louise!

Week of January 12

We started the new semester very well! We quickly displayed confidence and enthusiasm despite having a new teacher. We adapted to our new routines. Here are two routines we would like to share with you.

Question Of The DayEvery morning the students are asked to answer a simple question with a prompt such as ‘Is this a home?’ ‘What makes you say that?’ They express their opinions as well as their reasoning.

CalendarWe create a calendar each month. This month we created our January calendar and we coloured it with a repeating pattern. Please support us to finish colouring the pattern. Each day we colour yesterday with the correct colour.

Unit of InquiryThis week our new unit started and we are inquiring into homes. Please watch the video. Thank you very much for your videos and photos. A special thank you to Dana’s family for hosting us in your home.

LiteracyWe learned some reading strategies: using visual cues and using our prior knowledge to make connections to the text. We learned the words ‘title’ and ‘author.’ We worked out spellings by sounding out words and using our alphabet sheet. At this age, confidence building is very important. Please encourage us to write letters and words and please praise our efforts rather than focusing on incorrect spelling.

Show and TellWe have ‘show and tell’ starting next week. Please remind us to bring something to share to school. Preferably something about our culture or family life at home.

Homes reflect family life and cultureThis is a provocation video for the UoI: Homes reflect family life and culture. Throughout
this unit, the students will learn what constitutes homes and how homes reflect
our culture (the way we do things). We will be inquiring into cultural
commonalities and differences through day-to-day family life. In addition to
learning and applying a range of investigative skills, this unit aims to celebrate
differences, to foster pride in our own cultural identities and to develop open-mindedness.